Opener for commodity container



May 7, 1963 D. A. PERINO ETAL OPENER FOR COMMODITY CONTAINER Filed Jan. 9, 1961 INVENTORS DOMlNlC A.PER|NO JOHN D.ANDREWS ATTORNEY United States Patent ()fiice 3,088,654 Patented May 7, 1963 3,088,654 OPENER FOR COMMODITY CONTAINER Dominic A. Perino and John D. Andrews, Bayside, Wis,

assignors to Milprint, Inc., Milwaukee, Wis., a corporation of Delaware Filed Jan. 9, 1961, Ser. No. 81,572 1 Claim. (Cl. 229-85) This invention relates to openers for commodity containers and, in particular, to an opener arranged for severing the wall of a commodity bag that is adaptable for attachment to the commodity bag as a part thereof so as to be readily available for use.

Many commodities are packed in sealed bags formed of flexible, seamable material such as cellophane, polyethylene, aluminum foil, paper, etc. In order to open such a bag for withdrawal of the packaged commodity, the consumer often times must use a scissors, knife, or similar cutting tool, to cut away a portion of the bag material, particularly when the bag material may not be readily torn by hand. In many instances, such cutting tools are not readily available which makes it inconvenient to be forced to use tools of this nature in order to open a sealed commodity bag.

Accordingly, one of the principal objects of this invention is to provide a commodity container opener which may be attached to and furnished with a commodity container and be conveniently accessible for opening said container, said opener being of very modest cost so that it may be thrown away with the empty bag.

Another object of this invention is to provide a commodity bag having an attached opener capable of cutting a portion of the bag, thus permitting the sealed bag to be readily opened Without the use of a separate cutting tool.

A further object of this invention is to provide a hermetically sealable container bearing an opener suitably disposed so as to preserve the air-tight condition of the container and, at the same time, have the opener readily accessible to facilitate opening the package and subsequent withdrawal of the contents thereof.

The means for accomplishing these and other objects of the invention will appear in the description that follows. In the description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof and in which there is shown, by way of illustration and not of limitation, several forms of the invention.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of a filled commodity bag bearing an opener positioned in accordance with one form of the invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged sectional view of a portion of the bag shown in FIG. 1 and taken along the plane of line 22 in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the form of opener illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged sectional view of a potrion of the bag shown in FIG. 1 taken along the plane of line 44 in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a front elevational view of a portion of a filled commodity bag bearing an opener positioned in accordance with an alternate form of the invention.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, there is illustrated a commodity bag comprising superimposed sheets of suitable material 21 and 22 joined together along their contiguous side edges by seams 23, 24, 25 and 26 to enclose a commodity 27.

An opener 30 is disposed along a marginal portion of the commodity bag 20. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, opener 30 may have a generally U-shaped configuration including shoulder portion 31 and a pair of laterally extending spaced apart arms 34- and 35. A cutting member 32 depends from arm 34 and may have at least one sharpened cutting edge 38 to facilitate severance of bag materials. Arm 35 is provided with indentation 3'3 which is arranged to receive the lower end of cutting member 32 when the arms of opener 30 are urged together. The opener 30 is placed on bag 20 so that the cutting member 32 is positioned below the innermost edge of scam 25.

When it is desired to open the bag 20 to withdraw the packaged commodity, opener 30 is grasped and moved in a sliding action across the bag so as to sever at least one of the superimposed sheets below seam 25, its path of travel for such action being generally indicated by the dotted line 36 in FIG. 1. The marginal edge of bag 20 may be utilized as a guide to direct the sliding movement of opener 30 by moving the opener so that the inner surface of shoulder portion 31 rests upon the uppermost edge of the bag.

It is apparent that the opener 30 may be attached to commodity bag 20 at any convenient position. However, there are many instances, such as the packaging of perishable foods, in which it is desirable to have an air-tight or hermetically sealed package. In such cases, opener 30 may be attached in a ready position by clamping it to the bag along a marginal seam portion without puncturing the inner area of the bag, as illustrated in FIG. 1. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 5, an opener attachment web 39 may be provided by joining together portions of the bag Walls and the opener clamed to the bag along web 39 in its ready position. In the form illustrated in FIG. 5, the commodity bag may conveniently be formed as an extruded tube, sealed at its top and bottom and provided with an area 39 by conventional heat sealing methods.

Opener 30 may be manufactured as an integral unit from a single piece of material, such as metal, stamped to provide a U-shaped member. In such event, it is preferable to form cutting member 32 as an integral portion of one of the extending arms of the opener. Further, the stamping die, when used, may be designed to provide a sharpened cutting edge on the cutting member. Thus, the opener of the invention lends itself to relatively inexpensive manufacture, thereby permitting its use as a disposable article.

The opener, as shown in the embodiment described above, is not limited for use with any specific packaging material, but is adaptable for any material capable of being cut or slit. It is, however, especially effective for use with bags made of polyethylene or other plastic materials which are diflicult to tear. The opener may be used with bags having seams formed by any of the commonly used joinder methods, such as heat-sealed seams, adhesively bonded seams, sewn seams, stapled seams, or other types of seams. In addition, the opener may be inserted over a folded edge of a bag, instead of a seamed edge, for use with bags made from tubes or folded sheets of packaging material.

From the foregoing description, it is apparent that the present invention provides a novel bag opener which may be furnished attached to a commodity bag in a ready position and thereby be available for opening the bag without resort to a separate cutting device. Further, the opener may be furnished attached to a hermetically sealed bag without destroying the seal.

We claim:

A commodity container comprising in combination: superimposed sheets of flexible material joined togther along marginal edge portions to define a bag having a front face and a rear face; said bag having an opener attachment area formed adjacent an end to be opened, said area comprising juxtaposed portions of the front and rear faces of the bag arranged to be retained in close proximity when the bag is filled, and an opener attached to said bag in the opener attachment area, said opener including a pair of substantially parallel, spaced apart portions between which said juxtaposed portions of the front and rear faces of the 'bag are interposed, and a cutting portion depending from one of said spaced apart portions and arranged to pierce one of the jutaposed faces of the bag to retain the opener in ready position, said cutting portion having an edge adapted to sever said pierced sheet along a line of severance adjacent one end of the bag upon sliding movement of the opener.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Crocker Oct. 1, 1895 Vierengel May 16, 1916 Butt et a1 Mar. 20, 1934 Bassett Jan. 20, 1953 Parmer Sept. 9, 1958 FOREIGN PATENTS Great Britain 1895 

